Hello, I’d like to provide some insight on the upcoming film.
Number one, it is fiction, total fiction. It is based on a true story in the same sense that movies like Titanic are based on true stories, ie very loosely.
Second, there were a few former marines in the film, but the bulk of the cast were not. Some had some prior military service from another branch, others were just actors.
If people are going to watch the movie to see an acurate portrayal of what happened in Haditha, they will not see it in this film.
If people are going to watch it to see a good story that involves people from different walks of life, then they will like this film.
Personal views and political views aside, and looking only at a film as a form of art and entertainment, this film will do a great job. It is a moving story, but a story is all it is. Inspired by true events, but fictionalized for the sake of the art.
I cannot speak for McClaren, or how he feels about the film or his role in the film, but from my perspective the film takes no sides. Both the insurgents, and the Marines come off as both sympathetic, and as bad guys.
Looked at it as an art form and a form of entertainment, and nothing more.
I don’t feel that this film, regardless of how it portrays the Marines, should impact the trials of the real Marines.
While the court of public opinion can be swayed by uninformed and uneducated individuals who get their facts from Hollywood, I expect Marines who serve on a court martial jury would have enough good sense to judge a case based on fact, rather than a scene they saw in a movie.
Haditha is real place. An incident took place there involving real Marines.
The film depicts enraged Marines shooting unarmed civilians.
The film dramatizes John Murtha’s “and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood” speech.
Is Murtha getting a “based on a story by” credit?
The director is not promoting the film as fiction. He’s said there was a massacre in Haditha, and “many Hadithas” have taken place in Iraq.
Marines and their families have had their lives destroyed because the likes of Tim McGirk at Time magazine and John Murtha wanted to turn Americans against the war. And now this movie.
Hollywood will love it. Enjoy the fruits of your betrayal.
WOW! I never thought of Marines dying as an art form or entertainment.
>I don’t feel that this film, regardless of how it portrays the Marines, should impact the trials of the real Marines.<
The timing, itself, is bad. Coming during our conflict in Iraq is suspiciously anti-American, if it puts the Marines in a bad light. And it probably will impact, to a large degree, public opinion, which is, no doubt, the purpose of the film.
You haven’t given me any insight into the film other than that you are using your creativity and making money off of an incident that has harmed the Marines and their families who are involved in it, as well as the military in general. The name of the film is “The Battle for Haditha”? There is your number one mistake, there WAS a Battle for Haditha and people will relate that battle to the one in your film, whether yours is based on fiction or not. You have already stated one of the characters is based “loosely” on a real Marine involved. There is your number 2 mistake, saying it is based on a real person. You have Marines shooting Iraqis with their hands in the air? There is your number three mistake, that didn’t happen and doesn’t happen. I am certain there will be many more mistakes. Yes of course those on the jury or the IOs would be smart enough to know how to do their job, thank goodness for men like them, but you are taking a real incident, calling it by it’s real name and the general public who doesn’t know any better will think your story is based on true facts and is not a work of fiction. People go watch a movie WITH their personal beliefs and WITH their political views. They don’t leave it at the door. ALL your movie will do is fan a fire and show a negative bias against those who are defending YOUR right to make a movie like this. You are not doing any one any favors with this film, other than the ones who will be getting the paychecks and the royalties. If you want to do it right, then do your research, spend some times in the sandbox, wait until the hearings are over, get the facts RIGHT about how the military operates in a war zone, spend some time with Marines who do not fit into the stereotype that it sounds to me like you have of them - boy will YOU be surprised when you do that! - change the name of the film, and IF you are a thoughtful and caring person, give the profits to the defense funds for the Marines involved in the incident. Nothing worse than someone making a buck off of other people who have no say in the matter, who were doing their jobs as the professionals they are, just so you can show off your artistic talents. That it is people like these, the Haditha Marines, that you are portraying, makes it even more contemptable to me because it is men like this that have defended this great country for over 200 years. I believe YOU have an agenda and YOUR politcal beliefs are most DEFINITELY being brought to this film. There is no gray area when it comes to good and evil. You are attempting to mesh them together. It will not work even with your best intentions.
Lots of art is “fiction” (e.g., the novel ‘The Thin Red Line’ by James Jones or the film ‘Saving Private Ryan’); however that doesn’t stop that fiction from being represented to the public as a “true” and “faithful” portrayal of reality -— in fact, that pretense to reality is one of the selling points which helps attract an inexperienced public to such fiction. This is exactly what the trailer to this POS film does when it is stated that it is based on true events. To say that ths is a fiction and will be perceived as such by the audience is specious, to say the least. This film will communicate a political message as intended by the director and, in the process, will besmirch a group of Marines (and, by implication, ALL Marines) who were carrying out lawful orders in the exact manner prescribed by the infantry manual covering such assaults.
Well, actually, the subject manual advises the preferred approach is to stand off about a half a mile and level the place with tank or artillery fire, which of course would have had the same effect on the “innocents” inside. That’s why you see in films and photograph of US forces entering towns in Germany at the end of WWII that the “smart” Germans have hung white sheets out of every widow to indicate there will be no armed resistance from that house.
Of course this film will be prejudicial to the fair processing of the charges against the accused Marines! Your argument that a jury of Marine officers will see beyond it misses the pont. The film is prejudicial and it must be presumed to adversely affect the rendering of justice no matter who is on the jury and no matter whether it can be shown that any particular juror is so affected or not! One should err on the side of protecting the accused no matter how galling that sometimes is.
Face it, you just want to see some fine Marines pilloried without just cause. I feel sorry for you.
So why doesn’t Hollywhacked just tell the truth that these Marines are being framed by PravdABDNC and Turda?? Oh yeah, that wouldn’t fit the agenda of their propaganda which is what this garbage is about.
Problem with your Me Lie II agenda, there aren’t enough liars that will be witnesses.
Pray for W and Our Troops
And it’s that public opinion that you’re hoping for to slander our Military. You are Hollywood POS